Adil Najam
Mohamed Ali Jinnah, it seems, was not a “real freedom fighter” and he did “nothing for Islam.” (On Jinnah, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).
So says the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). And by what logic does Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his party come to this conclusion? According to the party spokesman: “Jinnah was not imprisoned during the independence struggle. That is why he did nothing worth remembering.”
I am left rather speechless. So, here is the news item from Daily Times (February 9, 2007) that reports on the matter:
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) will celebrate 2007 by paying tribute to the heroes who played an important role in the independence of Pakistan ignoring Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his companions, JUI officials told Daily Times on Thursday. They said that the party would hold conventions in Peshawar and other cities of the NWFP in March to highlight the services of “real freedom fighters”
“The decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of the JUI executive council in Lahore a couple of days ago. National Assembly Opposition Leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman presided over the meeting,” they added. JUI information secretary Maulana Amjad Khan said that Jinnah and his companions would not be commemorated because they had not done anything for Islam. “Jinnah was not imprisoned during the independence struggle. That is why he did nothing worth remembering,” Khan added.
He said the JUI would remember only those leaders who had sacrificed their lives for the creation of Pakistan or who had been imprisoned by the British Raj. JUI leader Qari Nazir Ahmed said the party would remember Hussain Maulana Ahmed Madni, Maulana Qasim Nanotri, Maulana Ubaid Ullah Sindhi, Maulana Mehmoodul Hassan, Syed Ahmed Shaheed, Shah Ismael Shaheed, Mauala Rasheed Ahmed and other leaders, who had rendered great sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan. “Maulana Qasim Nanotri established the Madrasa Darul Uloom Deoband. The institute produced a large number of freedom fighters,” Qari Nazir added. He said a schedule for conventions in the Punjab had not been decided yet. JUI Lahore chapter ameer Maulana Muhibun Nabi said the party would also arrange programmes in Lahore in this connection.
Interesting, by the way, that it seems that to be a “real freedom fighter” you have ‘Maulana’ prefixed before your name or a ‘Shaheed’ as a suffix.
Note: My thank to Watandost for alerting me to this rewriting of history.
[quote post=”566″]- To pray Adhan for to us, when a child is born
– To perform our wedding
– To do namaaz-jinazah[/quote]
Most of them are secularist and hadith rejectors and they don’t believe in basic of Islam like Namaz,Fasting etc so it doesn’t irk them if they abuse a mullah *grin*
[quote comment=”33662″]Why is this that we make ‘fun’ of maulanas all day long, but we ask a moulana:
– To pray Adhan for to us, when a child is born
– To perform our wedding
– To do namaaz-jinazah
So the ‘Mullah’ is required on all major occasions in our life. But still we taunt him?
Isn’t this our own failure that we as the ‘educated’ class in our society has failed to study religion and has to rely on the ‘Mullah’ to perform these tasks.[/quote]
Do not blame the ‘educated class’. I am educated but I also know azan and namaz since my childhood. Being educated is not mutually exclusive with knowledge of Islamic rituals. In fact all three things that you have mentioned are easy enough and really take a few hours in total (out of your whole life) to learn. Azan is said at least five times in Muslim countries and all you have to do is to focus every time it is said for a few days and you will learn it without much trouble. So is wedding sermon and janaza prayers as most of us go through these rituals from time to time.
Mullah is not required for any of the three or any major occasion. All three of your points can be done by any body! Just you and your parent’s lack of interest in your religion has made the Mullah unduly important. But this does not exonerate Mullah of its crimes/faults.
razia, secularism asks to prefer man-made laws over God’s laws, if this is not all about secularism then i am still waiting that some secularist come up and give a sane reason to distinguish himself from an aethist. An aethist reject a God so is a secularist. No difference.
Why is this that we make ‘fun’ of maulanas all day long, but we ask a moulana:
– To pray Adhan for to us, when a child is born
– To perform our wedding
– To do namaaz-jinazah
So the ‘Mullah’ is required on all major occasions in our life. But still we taunt him?
Isn’t this our own failure that we as the ‘educated’ class in our society has failed to study religion and has to rely on the ‘Mullah’ to perform these tasks.
I am amazed that people talk for freedom of speech for people who would not, over a long track record, allow any freedom to others. Question is how much more destruction and absurdity can be allowed in the name of freedom?
About Jinnah tolerating all this nonsense for so long.. let me mention that a couple of days after August 14 1947 there were riots in karachi and rioters burned hindu properties and temples and caused unrest in the city. That evening commissioner karachi was personally given orders by Quaid-e-Azam to restore order and to produce a body for every bullet fired on the rioters. Next day riots started like normal and police fired about six bullets (researchers may correct the number here but not by much); five people died and one was injured. Later commissioner had to give an explanation to the Governor General about that sixth bullet and it was accepted. After that day there was no unrest in the city. I would leave the analysis to others.